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Upin and Ipin are five-year-old Malay twins who and their elder sister Ros and grandmother Uda (whom they call Opah) in a kampung house in Kampung Durian Runtuh. They have lost their parents in their infancy. Upin and Ipin study in the village's Tadika Mesra (Kindergarten ), where they with a group of classmates, including the adorable and right-thinking Mei Mei, a joker and poetic Jarjit Singh, the clumsy and short-tempered Ehsan, an easygoing and sarcastic Fizi (Ehsan's cousin), and an entrepreneual and meticulous Mail.

The headman of Kampung Durian Runtuh is Isnin bin Khamis, better known as Tok Dalang Ranggi, the wayang kulit champion. Tok Dalang keeps a cluster of rambutan trees for commercial purposes, and a rooster named "Rembo". Among the village's other notable residents are Muthu, owner of the village's only food stall who lives with his animal whisperer son Rajoo and pet steer Sapy; Salleh (Sally), a transgender-apparent who owns a mobile library; and Ah Tong, a strident-voiced vegetable farmer. A new character was later added in the series who is an Indonesian girl named Susanti who moved in with her family.

The first season of Upin & Ipin was aired on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 7.30 pm, in conjunction with Ramadan and Aidilfitri, which tells of the twins Upin and Ipin on their first fasting months. The first four shorts debuted early in the holy months, followed by repeats from 22 September to 11 October, finally ending with two final episodes premiering on Hari Raya itself.[1] This series bore away the Best Animation award in the 2007 Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival.[2]

The second series, under its full title Upin & Ipin: Setahun Kemudian, went on air in conjunction with Ramadan again, with 12 new episodes, the first six of which were aired and repeated on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 7.00 pm throughout Ramadan[3] while the other six premiered for Hari Raya from 1 till 6 of Shawal.[4] This season was sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive Malaysia via its Colgate Kayu Sugi toothpaste.[5]

Under the new full title Upin & Ipin dan Kawan-Kawan, a third season of the series premiered on TV9 on 2 February 2009,[6] with each episode lasting up to seven minutes. As a year-long production season, it had frequent in-season breaks filled by repeats, and also experienced some schedule changes. From 14 May, the TV series received major sponsorship from TM,[7] which placed its brand on the show to this date. In the year-end school break season, it became apparent that new episodes are strategically debuted on school holidays, with new episodes premiering on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 5.30 pm (repeats for the rest of the week) throughout the six-week holiday season. This is also the first season of Upin & Ipin for the international market, airing on Disney Channel Asia beginning 15 November 2009 with dubs in English (the official dub, as the credits and episode titles are in English as well), Mandarin and other languages.

Ep 1 - Air Kolah, Air Laut (Between The Pool & The Seven Seas)

(May have served as a story setting episode for the Journey to Treasure Island story)

Season four of Upin & Ipin dan Kawan-kawan debuted on TV9 on 15 March 2010 with the episode "Juara Kampung (Part 1)", with a brand new opening sequence and color pencil and exercise book-themed title card. The main focus on this season is as a tribute to sports, as it was developed in a year full of sport events. Season 4 was co-sponsored by TM.[8]

Season 5 debuted on TV9 on the 12th of March 2011 with the episode "Belajar Lagi". As with previous seasons it opens with a new sequence, now based on a papercraft theme. This season airs every Saturday night at 6:30pm.

Upin and Ipin will start their fun story with the Chinese New Year story as the seventh season's premier. The episodes air on Saturday evenings at 6:30pm. The first episode was scheduled to air on 2nd September 2013, but due to technical problems the first episode have been pushed to 9th September 2013.

Since December 2009, Upin & Ipin have been adapted into a monthly comic magazine series, aptly titled Majalah Komik Upin & Ipin to be circulated all over Malaysia, published by Nyla Sdn Bhd.[10] Targeted at young readers, the magazine features screenshot comics of the Upin & Ipin TV series and the Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula film, voice actor and production crew profiles, and learning and activity sections.

The Upin & Ipin franchise has wielded its influence in countries of the Malay archipelago, notably in Malaysia and Indonesia which share linguistic and cultural similarities. Its first season landed its first award, for Best Animation in KLIFF 2007.[11]

While season two was on air on Ramadan 2008, it was reportedly watched by 1.5 million viewers on TV9,[12] making it the second most-watched animated series on all of Malaysian television, right behind Doraemon (1.6 mil), yet ahead of SpongeBob SquarePants (800,000).[13] The popularity of Upin & Ipin could have attributed to the commercial success of Malaysia's first CGI-animated feature film, Geng: The Adventure Begins (2009), which featured the twin characters Upin and Ipin, propelling it into the RM 6.31 million mark throughout its seven-week run in Malaysian cinemas as one of the highest-grossing Malay-language films in history.[13]

As the third season reaches its conclusion in late 2009, TV9 reports that Upin & Ipin was viewed by 1.6 million, making it the second most-viewed programme on the channel, just behind the free TV premiere of Geng which was watched by 2.45 million (scoring TVR 12.8).[14]

Indonesia has been the most obvious export market for Upin & Ipin. In 2009, MNCTV which airs the series in the republic reported a TVR of 10.5.[15] Upin & Ipin has also been praised by the Indonesian press; for instance, Fadil Abidin for Analisa who remarked on the vastness of moral content and Islamic values, such as respect for those of different ethnic or religious backgrounds, in a communal setting consisting not only of Malays, Chinese and Indian Malaysians, but also Indonesians.[16]

In March 2010, as the Balinese Hindu community prepare for Nyepi, images of ogoh-ogoh (demonic effigies used for the famed ngrupuk ritual on the eve of Nyepi) which largely resemble Upin & Ipin were exposed on Indonesian media. The effigy reportedly cost 4 million rupiah.[17]